MIAMI — Father Anthony Mercieca’s
admitted behavior 40 years ago with a young Mark Foley “is morally
reprehensible, canonically criminal and inexcusable,” the spokeswoman for the
Archdiocese of Miami said Oct. 20, shortly after receiving the name of the
former congressman’s alleged abuser.

Mary Ross Agosta, director of communications for the Miami
Archdiocese, said Archbishop John Favalora had
withdrawn from Father Mercieca the right to function
as a priest and had begun an investigation that “could result in ecclesiastical
sanctions” against the Maltese priest, who served in south Florida for 38
years.

The Diocese of Gozo in Malta,
for which Father Mercieca was ordained in 1962, was
notified of Archbishop Favalora’s decisions, the
spokeswoman said. The priest, who retired in 2002 from work in the Miami
Archdiocese, now lives on the Maltese island of Gozo. A notice on the Web
site of the Diocese of Gozo said Bishop Mario Grech had asked his diocesan response team to investigate
the abuse allegations and report back to him. It said the diocese had learned
about the allegations Oct. 19 “from the international press.”

(CNS)

D.C. Talk Proposes Solution for
Iraqi Christians

WASHINGTON — A new administrative region for Christians and other
minorities in northern Iraq
is the only solution to keep them from disappearing from the Shiite-majority
country, said Pascale Warda,
the former Iraqi minister of displacement and migration. Warda
said minorities in Iraq —
Assyrian Christians, Chaldean Catholics, and others —
do not want a divided Iraq.

“We would like to
organize a democratic and federalist Iraq,” she said.

Michael Youash, project director of the Iraqi Sustainability
Democracy Project, said the administrative region with local jurisdiction would
encompass the Nineveh
plain and minority lands in the western part of the Dahuk
region.

Youash and Warda spoke Oct. 18 at a press conference at the National
Press Club in Washington.
All minorities, without exclusion, could live in the region, they said. Youash said the administrative region, or governorate, is
guaranteed under a constitutional provision allowing creation of such areas for
minorities.

(CNS)

State Conference Considers
Appealing Decision

ALBANY, N.Y. — The New York State Catholic Conference
said it is considering an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court of a state court
decision on mandated contraceptive services.

The Oct. 19
decision of the New York State Court of Appeals upheld a state law that forces
Catholic education, health and human services ministries to provide
contraception coverage in employees health plans.

“We are very
disappointed with the Court of Appeals’ decision and firmly believe that it is
in error,” said Richard Barnes, executive director of the New York State
Catholic Conference in a statement. “Any religious organization must have the
right in American society to uphold its own teachings, even if those teachings
are unpopular or countercultural.”